The present invention relates to a card reader device.
Card reader devices are typically used in self-service terminals, such as automated teller machines (ATMs), to enable a customer to identify himself/herself. One type of card reader device is a motorized card reader/writer (MCRW) device.
A bank customer can access funds from his/her account using an ATM card that typically has an associated personal identification number (PIN). Any customer who presents a valid ATM card and enters the correct PIN associated with that card has immediate access to funds in an account controlled by that ATM card. This makes ATM cards vulnerable to theft and to more surreptitious attacks, such as card “skimming”. Skimming refers to illicit reading of a magnetic stripe on a customer's ATM card.
With the increase of integrated circuit cards, skimming may become less common because an integrated circuit cannot be read surreptitiously as easily as a magnetic stripe. This may increase the occurrence of card capture fraud at an ATM.
One method of capturing cards at an ATM is referred to as the “Algerian V” attack. It is implemented by placing a wedge of material between co-operating rollers in the card reader. By wedging the co-operating rollers open, the fraudster can prevent the card reader from ejecting an inserted card. The customer may attempt to enter his/her PIN, which the fraudster will observe. When the customer leaves the ATM (without his/her card) then the fraudster can extract the customer's card, remove the wedge, and then use the customer's card and PIN to obtain funds from the customer's account.